Statement of the Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to tag based systems. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to implementing systems and methods for robust protection of item authentication, tracking and tracing against tag duplication.
Description of the Related Art
Tag based systems are used in a retail setting for inventory management and related security applications. In an RFID type of tag based system, a reader transmits a Radio Frequency (“RF”) carrier signal to an RFID device. The RFID device responds to the carrier signal with a data signal encoded with information stored by the RFID device. Increasingly, passive RFID labels are used in combination with Electronic Article Surveillance (“EAS”) labels in retail applications. Each RFID label includes a Tag Identifier (“TID”). The TIDs can be obtained by a nefarious person, and used to create copies of the RFID labels. The RFID label copies are coupled to counterfeit items. This creates difficulties in relation to verifications of the RFID labels' and/or items' authenticity.
Optical tag tracking and tracing systems are widely used. However, with no protection from identical copies, there is no provision for verifying authenticity. ID codes embedded in electronic devices (such as computers and cell-phones) allow identifying and provide varying degrees of authenticity verification.